Stanford Couldn't Elevate Its Game / Cardinal already were maxed out

Published 4:00 am, Monday, March 26, 2001

Whenever Stanford loses in the postseason to a team like Maryland -- as it did 87-73 in Saturday's NCAA West Regional final -- it's a reminder of what Stanford basketball is.

The Cardinal, under Mike Montgomery, play at near maximum efficiency every game throughout the regular season. That's why they lose so rarely. Their five regular-season losses the past two seasons is the fewest in Division I basketball, and their 15 regular-season losses the past four years is better than everyone but Duke, which has lost just 12. By comparison, Arizona has 23 losses in that four-year stretch; Michigan State, 22.

The Cardinal already were at near-peak level back on Dec. 21, when they beat Duke, and on Jan. 6, when they beat Arizona in Tucson. And they never regressed. That's why their national ranking and seeding are so high.

But it leaves no room for the Cardinal to hit the gas and elevate to a higher level when the NCAA Tournament arrives. They are already at full throttle. Duke maintains excellence through a season, but it has the athletes to be overwhelming in the postseason, too. A Stanford-Duke rematch in the Final Four would have been intriguing.

The Cardinal hits the ceiling quickly and maintain it for weeks and weeks. Stanford has no midseason lulls that could either ruin the season or be the springboard to a revitalized finish.

Maryland had hit the depths in mid-February and then began crawling out behind an emotional coach and a bevy of athletic talent that is at least the equal of Stanford's. Maryland forward Terence Morris credited a talk from Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick, whose team had gone through a similar slump during the season, with lifting the team after it had lost five of six games. By the time they reached the NCAA Tournament, the Terps were on the rise, confident they could do anything and gaining additional confidence each day. And they had a wide-open, fast-paced game to facilitate their new-found vigor and vast athletic potential.

It is a high-risk/high-reward state. You will recall that Arkansas, which was on a similar roll, lost in the first round, and Maryland nearly lost its opener to George Mason. It's inconceivable that Stanford would have been a possession away from losing to George Mason. But that scare did not make Maryland any less dangerous.

Two years ago, a weary Stanford team lost to an improving, hot-shooting Gonzaga team that reached the final eight and nearly upset eventual national champion Connecticut. Last year, the Cardinal lost to a North Carolina team that had struggled all season and suddenly found the spark to ignite its considerable talent, getting to the Final Four.

This Cardinal team, with its greater offensive capacity and versatility, looked like one that might break through, giving it the extra punch it needed to beat a hot team like Maryland. It did enable the Cardinal to get past St. Joseph's and Cincinnati. But Stanford could not handle Maryland when the Terps started running, especially with the Cardinal's depth limited because of injuries.

When it got emotional and hectic -- a mood enhanced by the national spotlight -- the hyped-up Terps and their hyped-up coach could not be slowed by the Cardinal, who needed some control over things.

"I thought that if we were at 90 percent of our 'A' game that we could beat anybody," Michael McDonald said.

But the Cardinal were slightly off their best, while Maryland is running at about 110 percent of midseason capacity and gaining confidence by the second.

Only one Cardinal player made more than half his shots as Stanford shot a season-low 41 percent. Oddly, that one player was Ryan Mendez, who had been slumping. In the second half, when he scored 15 of his 18 points, Mendez hit five of seven shots and went 4-for-6 on 3-pointers.

But Jason Collins and Casey Jacobsen combined to make just three of 11 shots in the game's final 18 minutes. In that same 18-minute span, Maryland made 14 of 19 shots and finished with the highest shooting percentage by a Cardinal opponent in more than three years -- 58 percent.

"We could not stop them from scoring," Jacobsen said.

The Terps were a train out of control, and all the fundamental efficiency in the world could not derail it.

"We could never get our hands around something we could do," Montgomery said, "and Maryland had a lot to do with that."